So what am I getting at with all this? We’re archiving the Video blog as part of this effort for a holistic, seamless collaboration experience. Join us over on the Collaboration blog, where you can continue to get updates on what is going on with Video Collaboration in the industry and at Cisco.

While it sounds too good to be true, it can be simple to build seemingly complicated video installations. Like a custom-built house, you can build video-collaboration rooms to specification. And custom doesn’t always have to mean complex. Cisco is helping organizations do that today by creating a solution with powerful codecs, intelligent imaging technology, and flexible software.

I’m often asked how to quickly build training or briefing rooms with presenters on both ends. People usually ask about a briefing room with 24 classroom seats or a 100-seat training room. They typically have three key requirements:

Local presenter or when the presenter is in the room

Remote presenter or when the presenter is calling in

Interactive discussion between different sites with local presenter at the podium

As video technology becomes more prevalent in both the consumer and business worlds, employees expect to find it in more places in the work environment. These days, it’s not uncommon to walk into a conference room and see a table surrounded by people using their laptops to watch a speaker or presentation from another location.

Cost and complication prevented many organizations from deploying video beyond the large rooms and executive suite. That’s no longer the case. Today, you can take advantage of existing equipment to bring two-way video to rooms that previously had only basic displays on the wall.

Quick Set products like SX10 and SX20 are a cost-effective alternative solution that provides the necessary parts without the higher cost of AV integrations or traditional integrated video conferencing systems.

We recently added the SX10 to our Cisco TelePresence SX Series line of solution products, which together with SX20 make up Quick Set solutions for video-enabling existing traditional meeting rooms. These two products are an affordable way to take advantage of your existing displays or monitors to deliver intelligent, high-definition videoconferencing. You can achieve sophisticated video collaboration experiences with flexibility for easy integration into many different types of rooms.

Extending your current display investments with a SX Quick Set video solution can offer the following benefits: Read More »

Cisco has a proven track record of supporting open standards, designed for maximum scalability and effectiveness. Our mission is to enable any to any collaboration – in a simple, intuitive and user friendly way. Unfortunately not all vendors are adapting to open standards. And customers that have already made significant investments in proprietary technologies are asking Cisco to help them bring these worlds together. To solve our customers’ challenges, Cisco has decided to expand our industry leading interoperability to include two way content sharing with Microsoft Lync 2013. This will be a software upgrade to existing solution. Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to a release.

On a recent visit to my doctor’s office, I observed something that I probably wouldn’t have paid much attention to in the past: When a nurse called the next patient back for her appointment, a young girl also stood up and explained that her mother didn’t speak English well and asked to accompany her to interpret.

I live right outside of Washington, D.C., which is fortunately a culturally diverse area so I am used to hearing different languages on a day-to-day basis. I guess I never really considered the impact of not speaking English when it comes to seeking medical care. Luckily, the example above, seemed like a routine office visit, but it got me thinking about what would happen in an emergency situation where seconds count.

Paras and Associates know this scenario all too well as they provide real-time language interpreters for healthcare environments using video collaboration. PAA’s service ensures that patients anywhere in the country, who speak any language, can gain access to high quality medical interpretation in an instant. Video communications has played a significant role in their practice and has significantly reduced “lost in translation” errors by allowing doctor, patient and interpreter to see each other’s faces. The power of video overcomes language barriers that can often be misinterpreted over the phone … and herein lies my passion.

I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Melinda Paras, PAA’s president and CEO. Melinda is a veteran of the medical industry and saw a need to deliver a better “business outcome” to patients and medical staff. In this case, the business outcome could mean the difference between life and death.

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